The Gulf Film Festival is an annual non-profit cultural event that aims to celebrate the highest standards of Gulf cinema. The Festival takes place in April in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The Festival will host two competitions as part of its mission to encourage creativity and excellence among filmmakers from the region:
1- The Film Competition is open to professionals in the categories of Feature Films, Short Films and Documentaries. The GFF will also feature a competition for students in the short films and documentary formats.
2- The Script Competition is for Emirati short films only.
In presenting the best of Arab cinema from the Gulf countries, the GFF will become a destination festival for the international film community to discover state of the art cinema in the region.
The Festival will also present International Cinema in order to fulfill its primary objectives of developing the film culture in the Gulf and creating greater opportunities for the region?s filmmakers to screen their films and build on future film projects.
Competition
The Festival will feature 2 main competitions: The Film Competition and the Script Competition.
The Film Competition has 2 categories: Official and Students.
The Official Competition is for films from the Gulf region - United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Kingdom of Bahrain, Sultanate of Oman, Qatar, Republic of Iraq and Republic of Yemen and is open to professional filmmakers of Gulf nationality.
The official competition is for Feature Films, Short Films and Documentaries.
The Students Competition is for films from the Gulf region - United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Kingdom of Bahrain, Sultanate of Oman, Qatar, Republic of Iraq and Republic of Yemen and is open to works produced or made by students of Gulf nationality during their academic study or as part of a university project.
The Students competition is for Short Films and Documentaries.
The Script Competition is for Emirati short films and is open only to UAE nationals. All prize money must be allocated for the production of the film in the UAE to help in the region’s film development.
All films must meet the competition criteria to be eligible for entry. A detailed list of guidelines is available in the GFF Rules & Regulations section.
AWARDS
The Gulf Film Festival will present a number of prizes in the Official Competition, and Students’ Competition. GFF will also award a Special Jury Prize in the Official Competition and Students’ Competition.
A GFF Certificate and cash prize will be awarded to the director of each winning film. The following is a list of GFF Awards and related prizes.
A) Official Competition Awards:
Feature Films:
- First Prize - AED 50,000
- Second Prize - AED 35,000
Documentary Films:
- First Prize - AED 25,000
- Second Prize - AED 20,000
- Third Prize - AED 15,000
Special Jury Prize for Feature or Documentary - AED 20,000
Short Films:
- First Prize - AED 25,000
- Second Prize - AED 20,000
- Third Prize - AED 15,000
- Best Script - AED 15,000
Special Jury Prize - AED 20,000
B) Students’ Competition Awards:
Documentary Films:
- First Prize - AED 20,000
- Second Prize - AED 15,000
- Third Prize - AED 10,000
Short Films:
- First Prize - AED 20,000
- Second Prize - AED 15,000
- Third Prize - AED 10,000
Special Jury Prize for Documentary or Short - AED 15,000
C) Script Competition for Emirati Short Films:
- First Prize - AED 50,000
- Second Prize - AED 40,000
- Third Prize - AED 30,000
D) Special Mentions:
Acknowledgements will be given in the various sections of the competition to distinguished works and their makers.